Cited by 652Public Relations and Crisis CommunicationCommunication and COVID-19 ImpactE-Government and Public Services

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Unpacking the black box: How to promote citizen engagement through government social media during the COVID-19 crisis

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Chen, Qiang, Min, Chen, Zhang, Wei, Wang, Ge, Ma, Xiaoyue, Evans, Richard·2020·Computers in Human Behavior

DOI 10.1016/j.chb.2020.106380PMC PMC7151317

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Abstract

During times of public crises, governments must act swiftly to communicate crisis information effectively and efficiently to members of the public; failure to do so will inevitably lead citizens to become fearful, uncertain and anxious in the prevailing conditions. This pioneering study systematically investigates how Chinese central government agencies used social media to promote citizen engagement during the COVID-19 crisis. Using data scraped from 'Healthy China', an official Sina Weibo account of the National Health Commission of China, we examine how citizen engagement relates to a series of theoretically relevant factors, including media richness, dialogic loop, content type and emotional valence. Results show that media richness negatively predicts citizen engagement through government social media, but dialogic loop facilitates engagement. Information relating to the latest news about the crisis and the government's handling of the event positively affects citizen engagement through government social media. Importantly, all relationships were contingent upon the emotional valence of each Weibo post.

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Authors: Chen, Q., Min, C., Zhang, W., Wang, G., Ma, X., & Evans, R.
Affiliations: Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
City University of Hong Kong (HK)
Huazhong University of Science and Technology (CN)
Central China Normal University (CN)
Brunel University of London (GB)
Corresponding author: Zhang, Wei
ORCID: Chen, Qiang
Min, Chen
Zhang, Wei
Wang, Ge
Ma, Xiaoyue
Venue: Computers in Human Behavior
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Published: 2020-09
Volume: 110
Pages: 106380
ISSN: 0747-5632 (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2020.106380
PMC: PMC7151317
OpenAlex: W3015216621
Cited by: 652
References: 72
Citations by year: 2026: 33 · 2025: 64 · 2024: 90 · 2023: 120 · 2022: 133 · 2021: 164 · 2020: 48
FWCI: 139.48
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: green
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Licence: www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
www.elsevier.com/legal/tdmrep-license (tdm)
Locations: Computers in Human Behavior (publishedVersion)
PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Brunel University Research Archive (BURA) (Brunel University London) (submittedVersion)
Funders: National Social Science Foundation of China (17CXW026)
Topics: Social Sciences › Communication › Public Relations and Crisis Communication
Social Sciences › Communication › Communication and COVID-19 Impact
Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › E-Government and Public Services
Keywords: citizen participation, government social media, COVID-19 pandemic, crisis communication, Weibo, media richness, content types, emotional valence

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Unpacking the black box: How to promote citizen engagement through government social media during the COVID-19 crisis

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